


here for you

by allp_wips



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-05-14 11:38:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19272502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allp_wips/pseuds/allp_wips
Summary: Alex shows up at Astra's doorstep one night.





	here for you

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt:
> 
> The hero shows up at the villain’s doorstep one night. They’re shivering, bleeding, scared. There’s also a slightly dazed look in their eyes– they were drugged. They look like they were assaulted. Looking up at the villain, swaying slightly as they’re close to passing out, they mumble “…didn’t know where else to go…” then collapse into the villain’s arms.

"I didn't know where else to go."

 

Astra has heard those words many timse before, on many other planets, from many faces and voices. That was part and parcel of leading many of the Kyrptonian spacefleet's peacekeeping missions.

 

But, that was - quite literally - a lifetime ago. She doesn't expect to hear it here, on Earth, from a wrecked-looking Alexandra Danvers, who is swaying on her feet as she speaks, the words slurring together in an almost unintelligible jumble.

 

"Kara can't see me like this," Alex mutters.

 

She keeps repeating that feverishly, as Astra half-leads and half-carries her to the couch (mostly carries, to tell the truth). 

 

"Couldn't go to J'onn, he'd ask too many questions... Brainy and Winn, they'd call Kara before I even cross the doorstep... you can't tell her, Astra, she can't see me like this... she can't..."

 

Alex trails off, and Astra tries not to notice how frail and weak the woman feels in her arms. Agent Alex Danvers might be human and suspect to the weakness of the rest of her species, but it's strange to think her along the lines of such adjective. Not her. Not the woman who had murdered Astra once, and who never flinches no matter which opponent she faces, Kryptonian or human or otherwise.

 

\---

"It was your father," Astra says, when Alex wakes up the next morning. Her tone is a statement rather than a question.

 

Alex blinks, and looks around, rubbing her eyes. She's still on the sofa, in Astra's makeshift combo of a lab and apartment, but it's different from the sterility she'd encountered here in previous (mostly business-related) visits. There's a warmth spreading through the windows, illuminating the glass of water standing on the nearby table, along with a tablet of Tylenol. Alex blinks again, when she spies nearby a plate of breakfast. Kara  _ had  _ said something Astra being a surprisingly good cook. Alex can't remember the last time she'd ever had breakfast.

 

"It was your father," Astra repeats, as Alex is still getting her bearing. "It was him you went to see last night, wasn't it? That's why you didn't want your sister to know."

 

Alex looks down, knowing it's futile to argue, with Astra of all people.

 

"I thought I could take to him," she mutters. "Make him see sense. Cadmus was bad enough, but helping the Children of Liberty?"

 

"Did he do this to you?" Astra asks.

 

Alex pauses, as she senses the dangerous undercurrent in Astra's tone. For some reason she can't quite fathom, Astra is as protective of her as Kara has ever been. Alex finds it annoying during missions, but this isn't a mission, and somehow for once, Alex finds that she doesn't exactly mind the care exhibited.

 

"No," she sighs. "He wouldn't even see me, and Agent Liberty's goons caught me as I was leaving."

 

She stares out the window in silence. It's Astra who breaks it, after letting her stew a while in her thoughts. 

 

"Tell me who they are. I'll take care of them. Kara will never need to know."

 

"No." Alex rubs her eyes, attempts to get up off the couch, before groaning and lying back down as her body protests. "I don't need you fighting my battles, Astra. That's not why I'm here."

 

Not that she knows, exactly, why she's here. All she'd known last night was that she was hurt, and Kara couldn't know, and Astra had been the first face that popped into her mind. Alex doesn't really want to explore why right now, not with this newest betrayal of her father so fresh.

 

"I think my father is," she blinks back tears, pauses, and speaks again. "I just can't seem to get through to him, and I  _ know  _ Kara will blame herself for all of it, if she finds out he's part of it, and I- I just-"

 

She trails off in a huff of frustration. 

 

Another pause, and then Alex feels a weight settling next to her, and fingers trailing over her head, and down her neck. Astra is always strangely touchy-feeling, a trait that exemplifies the dichotomy of the woman it belongs to. It had used to unnerve Alex at the beginning of their acquaintance. Right now, though, it simply calms her nerves.

 

"Then, what can I do?" Astra asks, eventually. A simple request, with only the intensity and near-pleading of her gaze to underscore how much she means the question.

 

Alex stares back at her, and then pounces. She catches Astra around the waist, and hears the other woman exhale in surprise, thought of course she doesn't stagger. 

 

"What are you doing?"

 

Alex holds on to her, uncaring that she's practically imitating a koala right now. "I don't need you to fight anyone. I don't need you to avenge me, or anything stupid like that. Just stay, please. That's all I need, right now."

 

"Alex, I..." Astra sounds troubled, as Alex hangs on.

 

Alex curls her fingers around the back of her neck, too exhausted to prompt her.  

 

"I don't understand," Astra finishes.

 

Alex smiles into the dark fabric. She burrows closer into the hold, and from the way Astra exhales against her, the way she softens, she thinks maybe Astra understands more than she thinks she does. 

 

"That's ok. You don't have to understand. You just have to be here."

 

\---


End file.
